"English teacher" or "teacher of English "

An Indonesian teacher teaching English is supposed to be a "teacher of English" and NOT an "English teacher". Am I mistaken?

Solution 1:

"English teacher" is fine in most circumstances and is probably more common.

Only if you want to be especially precise and unambiguous would you need to use "teacher of English" instead.

I think that 99% of the time or more, a native speaker would interpret "English teacher" as a teacher of the English language, not a teacher whose nationality is English.

Solution 2:

In speech whether a teacher is English or teaches English depends entirely on the stress used in the sentence. A teacher of English is referred to as an:

• 'English teacher

Here these two words form a compound noun and are stressed just on the first syllable of the compound.

However, a teacher from England (who might teach anything at all) will be referred to as:

• an 'English 'Teacher

Here we see an adjective noun combination. Each word will have its own stress in a normal pronunciation. Because teacher will probably be the last word in the utterance, the first syllable, teach, in the second word will have a higher pitch and seem more prominent than the stressed syllable Eng in the adjective English.

We see this pattern in other compound nouns and adjective plus noun combinations. For example, this is a 'greenhouse:

But this is a 'green 'house

I myself am a 'Scottish 'English teacher!

Solution 3:

Well it really depends on context. If you're referring to the teachers credentials, it would be appropriate to call them a teacher of English and an English teacher. However, if you're describing the teachers ethnic-group, English teacher would fit the description. Keep in mind that many English speaking countries and speakers commonly refer to an English teacher with the former description above.